


Choose the Moment

by allyarra



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-21
Updated: 2013-07-21
Packaged: 2017-12-20 22:55:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/892867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allyarra/pseuds/allyarra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Or five times Raleigh wanted to kiss Mako and one time Mako kissed Raleigh</p>
            </blockquote>





	Choose the Moment

**Author's Note:**

> For an Anon on tumblr who requested it

1

The first time that Raleigh sees Mako she’s standing in the rain with a giant umbrella over her head and that’s the image he carries of her until she’s standing there watching him test potential co-pilots. She’d looked like this oasis of calm in the middle of the rushing about and he’d felt drawn to her. Then she’d turned to the Marshall and said he didn’t look like what she’d imagined and for a moment he was forced to actually consider how he looked.

He knew his face was wind burnt and the dirt formed patterns around where his goggles normally sat. He wore the same clothes he’d worn on the job back in Alaska and he knew that he looked more suited to menial labor than here at a military base. Especially since supposedly he was the one that was being called in to save their butts. So no, he supposed he didn’t look anything like what she’d expected, but that didn’t mean she was what he expected either.

He certainly hadn’t expected this woman to be standing there with military bearing and blue streaks in her hair as Stacker Pentecost introduced them, especially not when he learned her name. Raleigh’s not stupid, he knows exactly who Mako Mori is to Stacker Pentecost.

It’s not the same sort of surprise that Raleigh’s sure Mako’s feeling right now, the kind of disappointed surprised when reality doesn’t live up to your expectations. Instead, Raleigh’s caught by surprise because he never imagined that he’d want to kiss Marshall Stacker Pentecost’s daughter as much as he wants to right then.

Raleigh wants to see if he can shake that calm and what she’d do if he kissed her. He lets that fantasy play out in his head for a moment, amused at himself, before he lets it go to follow them inside. There’s nothing substantial in that fantasy and nothing would come of it if he acted on it. Raleigh learned a long time ago that he has to curb his impulses and this was one that he was going to crush. Tired and dirty Raleigh Becket had no business kissing the calm and composed Mako Mori.

 

2

In the years since Yancy’s death Raleigh has found that he really hates being stared at, especially when the stare is evaluating him. It doesn’t matter who it is that’s staring at him, it makes his skin crawl. Once upon a time in a different life he enjoyed the attention, but now it’s very, very different. He’s lost so much and he’s not who he was then, he’s not the boy on the trading card, the one who joked and laughed and charmed the whole world for a brief time.

He’s not even the boy who was recovered from the fallen Gipsy Danger, mind such a mess that he couldn’t move his left arm, honestly believing that it had been torn off. He’d left the program with his tail between his legs, running from the scrutiny of being the one who had lived. He’d found anonymity working on the wall and he’d relished it. Raleigh wasn’t meant for the limelight, he knew that now.

So he the fact that he could feel their stares on him as he tested the potential co-pilots just made him feel sick to his stomach. He didn’t want to be here, didn’t want the attention. The only reason he’d come back was because being here was better than watching the world go to hell and doing nothing about it. Because as much as he’s not made for the idolization of the past, he’s also not made for sitting by and doing nothing.

But what catches his attention is that one set of eyes does not make him sick to his stomach, doesn’t make him want to give up and go back into hiding. Instead he’s drawn into seeking these eyes out even as he tries to dance with each partner and every time he fails he sees the expression on her face and all he wants to do is kiss it away. That’s a reaction which both surprises and amuses him but he knows that that response is not allowed so he calls out to her, calling for her to come and try this dance with him.

He’s not surprised when the feeling of eyes on him falls away while he dances with her, feeling a connection that’s been denied to him for a very long time.

 

3

Raleigh’s fighting back his panic as he looks over at Mako and screams her name. She doesn’t respond and if it weren’t for the fact that the drift hasn’t quite ended yet he would be afraid she was dead. That’s when he makes up his mind. Even if he doesn’t make it out, he’s not losing another co-pilot. Mako will make it out of here alive if he has to die for her.

He gives her his oxygen, knowing exactly what that means and he tries to keep all of the mushy symbolic stuff out of his head because Raleigh Becket is not sentimental like that. He’s not because he refuses to be. Sentimentality in this case is just poison to him.

It doesn’t help that he looks at her, eyes closed and skin just shades paler than normal. She’s beautiful and he knows that the beauty is more than skin deep. The drift has ended and he’s alone in his mind but he knows exactly how she would feel about him doing this, sacrificing himself for her, even if he plans to get out in time. He doesn’t care because he can’t live with the loss of half of his mind again, he just can’t.

So he looks at her one last time, drinking in the sight of her, and he knows then that if he could he would kiss her goodbye, just in case. He’s grateful that their helmets are in the way because he knows she would want to be awake for their first and last kiss. And so he sends her off to safety without that kiss and he only regrets it just a little as he blacks out and thinks that he’s sorry he’ll put her through the pain of losing everyone in just one day.

 

4

Raleigh wakes up in Mako’s arms and he knows then that he never wants to leave them again. If it weren’t for the fact that he was having a little difficulty breathing he’d have let her hold on as tightly as she wanted to. He wished he could get his limbs to cooperate.

He wants so badly to kiss her then, in the euphoria of winning the war and just plain being alive to see the end. She’s smiling at him more widely than he’s ever seen her smile at him before and he wants to kiss her so badly then. He knows that she wants to kiss him too, can feel it in the air, and remembers it from her memories. He leans forward, bringing their heads together but before he can get any closer the helicopters stream overhead and he knows the moment is over. (He settles for the physical comfort of her being solidly next to him, knowing their moment will come soon enough).

 

5

When they get back to the Shatterdome after that last battle the first thing that happens is they’re shuffled off to the infirmary to get checked out. Raleigh tries to get away, arguing that he’s fine, but no one believes him. In the end, it’s just one look from Mako that has him going quiet and submitting to the orders without more protests. He doesn’t like it, he’s never like the infirmary and doubts he ever will, but he knows that Mako wants the assurance that he’s not going to suddenly drop dead on her. For that matter, he wants to make sure that there’s been no lasting harm done to her by the brief amount of time she had no oxygen.

The doctors make jokes and the mood is jubilant but the adrenaline has started to run dry and Raleigh is exhausted and bruised. He knows that there’s long hours of physical therapy ahead of him again, his right arm is now as useless as his left once was, but for now all he wants is to go to bed.

They let him out when he pleads to be allowed to sleep in his own bed. Mako appears at his doorway not fifteen minutes later and he lets her in wordlessly. Together they silently get ready for bed and climb in together. Raleigh thinks about kissing her then but the ache in his body and the way that her hands cling to him so hard make him rethink about it. Tonight they both need the other’s comforting presence and nothing more. So he kisses the top of her head and holds her close as they both slip into sleep.

 

+1

Two weeks after the last battle Mako sits in hers and Raleigh’s room (once it was just his but since that awful day two weeks ago it’s been accepted as both of theirs) and broods. Raleigh is in physical therapy and will be back any time now, she knows this. She also knows that he will be tired and sore and will make no moves towards what they both want. Mako knows why he does this, but she’s also decided that at this point she is ready for more and that he can stop waiting for her.

So she decides that it’s time for her to make the first move. Raleigh enters the room quietly and smiles to see her sitting at the desk, watching him move to sit on the bed.

“How was it today?” she says as he sits on the edge of the bed with a groan.

“Same as always,” he responds. “Get any work done?”

Mako smiles and stretches, liking the way his eyes go to where her shirt rides up. “Mmm, not really,” she says and stands to walk over to him. “I’ve been a little distracted.”

“Oh? Why?” He sounds genuinely confused and she wants to laugh, especially when the confusion becomes evident on his face as she sits on his lap. She’s very glad that it’s just his shoulder that’s getting physical therapy or she wouldn’t have been able to do so and she’s found that Raleigh’s lap is one of her favorite places to sit.

“Because you haven’t kissed me yet,” she whispers and pulls his face down so that their lips can (finally) meet. At first he doesn’t respond and then he’s grabbing her and pulling her flush against his body, returning her kiss enthusiastically. She laughs into the kiss but doesn’t stop, not when it feels so good.


End file.
